Work has been done on organising voice recordings in the form of storage folders on a computer system. Several research projects and products have demonstrated how computer-based, digital voice files can be edited using a graphical editor. Either the whole file, or sections of the file, can be moved or copied into folder areas to aid subsequent retrieval. Documented examples are Hindus, D., Schmandt, C., and Horner, C. 1993, Capturing, Structuring and Representing Ubiquitous Audio in ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 11(4), October, pp. 376-400 and Stifelman, L. J. et al 1993, "VoiceNotes: A speech interface for a hand-held voice notetaker", Proc. InterCHI 1993, ACM, New York.
Applicant's earlier European Patent Application No. 679005 discloses a system in which a visual representation of voice data is displayed and iconic tags are used to automatically store associated parts of speech data in predefined storage areas.
Work has also been done on creating index points in voice recordings. It has been shown how index points can be stamped on voice recordings to aid subsequent retrieval of interesting sections of audio. This is common in consumer electronics products such as hi-fi cassette recorders. The paper by Degen, L., Mander, R., and Salomon, G. 1992, "Working with Audio: Integrating Personal Tape Recorders and Desktop Computers", Proc. CHI 1992, ACM, New York discusses a system where the user can associate index markers with a voice file. A system such as described in IBM Technical Disclosure 36/09B (September 1993) "Method of categorising phone messages into message logs" allows searching within the voice file for a specific keyword or phrase.
There has also been work done on eliciting voice input in a structured, form-based manner. Certain telephone answering services generate voice prompts to structure a caller's voice message (an example is described in the paper by Schmandt, C. and Arons, B., 1985, "Phone Slave: A Graphical Telecommunications Interface", Proc. Soc. Information Display, 26(1)). In effect, the caller is filling in a verbal form in response to questions such as:
"What is your name? (BEEP)"; "What are you calling about? (BEEP)"; etc. PA1 means for storing parts of a speech data record in a plurality of form fields; PA1 means for the user to input form field indicators; PA1 means for recognising form field indicators; PA1 a plurality of storage areas for storing speech data records; PA1 means for inputting storage area indicators; PA1 means for recognising storage area indicators;
Such services are becoming popular because they simplify the task of listening to message enquiries and routing them to the correct destination within a company.